With the ninth round of DRS grant competitions expected this fall, many programs are beginning to think about how they will complete their grant proposal. Some programs have a team or staff member who develops proposals; other programs might contract with a grant...

Each year, the release of the National Overview of Grantee CLASS Scores provides national statistics by CLASS domain and dimension of the grantees that received CLASS reviews during the past program year. The National Overview for 2019 was recently made available. As...

This is the time of year that programs who competed for DRS grants in the fall typically begin to receive notification of an award or are contacted by the Office of Head Start (OHS) to begin negotiations. The eighth round of DRS was one of the largest rounds of DRS to date and soon many of the awardees will enter the start up period.

At the end of each quarter in 2020 we will post quarterly updates about the status of the many moving pieces of DRS. This is the first of four quarterly status updates for the year. We’ll address topics such as upcoming grant competitions, monitoring, program...

This month, we made many improvements to the Foundations for Families website. Now, you can more easily learn about the resources and services we offer. If your program plans to compete for funding in the upcoming round of DRS, we encourage you to check out our Grant...

If your program submitted an application in DRS Round 8, with most applications due in November 2019, then you might be anxiously anticipating your notice of award. Typically, it is a few months until programs enter negotiations with the Office of Head Start (OHS)....

As we head into the new year there are Head Start/Early Head Start programs in all stages of DRS. Your program might have just submitted a DRS grant proposal, be working on a proposal for an active DRS competition, or awaiting your program’s opportunity to compete....

This week, hundreds of DRS grant competitions are coming to a close. Proposals for most of the DRS Round 8 grant competitions were due on November 12 and others are due later this month and in early December. Congratulations to all who successfully submitted an...

The application deadline for most programs in this round of DRS is just three weeks away. This is a good time to check in on proposal development and what needs to happen between now and submission. Your program might also be identifying ways it can continue to...

On October 10, 2019, Head Start/Early Head Start grant forecasts were added to grants.gov. Eleven grants are forecasted, and some appear to be DRS. Other forecasts are for CDI replacement grants. In other words, they are grants currently being implemented by Community...

On Monday, May 19, 2020 the upcoming Early Head Start Expansion and Early Head Start – Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) grant competitions were forecasted on grants.gov. Links to the forecasts for the three Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) and detailed...

Last month, in Top 5 Tips for Success in EHS Expansion and EHS-CCP Round 4, we highlighted the importance of planning for start-up during your grant application process. In this blog post, we describe key factors to keep in mind if your program plans to request...

The Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for the fourth round of EHS Expansion and Early Head Start – Child Care Partnership grants is expected this summer. Check out our top five tips for success in Round 4! 1. Get your data ready. EHS Expansion and EHS-CCP Round 4...

Throughout 2020 we will post quarterly status updates about the Early Head Start Expansion and Early Head Start - Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) initiative. This is the first of four quarterly status updates. We’ll address topics such as pending grant awards, new...

The countdown is on for EHS Expansion and Early Head Start – Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) Round 4. The fourth round of EHS Expansion and EHS-CCP grants is expected to open for competition in summer 2020.

With the fourth round of Early Head Start Expansion and Early Head Start – Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) grants competitions coming soon, now is a good time to plan your application strategy. Foundations for Families offers customized grant services, and our team...

If the Early Head Start Expansion and Early Head Start – Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) grant cycle holds true, EHS Expansion and EHS-CCP Round 4 could come soon. This time last year, EHS-CCP Round 3 was open for competition. We’re in a similar situation where the...

On June 7, a forecast was added to grants.gov for Early Head Start Expansion and Early Head Start – Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) grants in Los Angeles County, California. To view the forecast, go to the Search Page of grants.gov and search opportunity number...

This spring, Early Head Start – Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) and EHS Expansion round 3 grantees are well on their way in the start up period. With the third round of EHS-CCP and EHS Expansion grants, there is a mix of grantees that are awardees from round 1 or...

Congratulations to programs that were awarded Early Head Start Expansion and Early Head Start – Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) grants in the third round of competition. While we haven’t seen an announcement from the Office of Head Start about who was awarded funds,...

Data collection and management systems are an everyday aspect of Head Start/Early Head Start programs. The type of data that is collected by programs, and when and how it is used, varies from one program to the next. There are a few key strategies that can be followed...

By Patti Greenstein, Consultant and Trainer This year, the Office of Head Start (OHS) revised the FY2020 Focus Area 2 (FA2) Monitoring Protocol to include an increased focus on the area of ERSEA (eligibility, recruitment, selection, enrollment, and attendance). As OHS...

In this blog post, we look at some of the strengths and challenges of implementing practice-based coaching with family child care programs, and we share examples of how the uniqueness of the family child care setting supports quality improvement.

Our thoughts are with early care and education programs during this challenging time that our country faces. We deeply appreciate the vital role that early care and education programs serve in communities and have heard from many of you about the stress and anxiety...

The National Head Start Association (NHSA) Winter Leadership Institute was held last month in Washington, DC. Foundations for Families team members attended this conference. It was wonderful to see so many of you there! We heard important funding updates from federal...

Happy New Year! 2019 was a busy year for early care and education programs. From state to local levels, departments and agencies competed for new funding and worked hard to improve program quality and provide services to meet the needs of young children and families....

Earlier this week, the Office of Head Start (OHS) released a Program Instruction (PI) - Disaster Recovery Funding for 2018 and 2019 Disasters ACF-PI-HS-19-01- that describes funding available to Head Start/Early Head Start programs that have been impacted by...

By Julie Weatherington, Consultant and Trainer Practice-based coaching is a professional development strategy for guiding early learning providers’ use of evidence-based best practice to improve teaching methods and promote positive child outcomes. It is a powerful...

By Julie Shuell, Senior Consultant, Foundations for Families Data-driven decision making relies on having access to information and using it to think about current programming, funding strategies, partnerships, and staffing. The upcoming 2020 Census will provide new...

By Amanda Schwartz, Consultant, Foundations for Families The children in your program come with a wide variety of strengths, challenges, and needs which you and your staff work hard to support. Sometimes those needs qualify them for special education or health...